#Tron Identity

[encom-official]

Tron: Uprising & The Circuitry of The Grid

A sorely under appreciated aspect of Tron Uprising is the backgrounds & environments. They expand what, at least to me, The Grid is & can be. Especially Cyrus, & the outlands, feel remarkably spiritual & otherworldly in a way that is genuinely mind blowing to me.

If you didn’t gasp when they walked down that big ass colorful tunnel I don’t know what to say to you. It implies an unseen depth to the environment & ecosystem of The Grid that we just can’t see, & is objectively gorgeous.

Tron Uprising also introduces grid bugs as a concept into the canon again since the original movie. We don’t know exactly how the food chain or animals of The Grid work, but we know things like weather still exist, & grid bugs seem like a natural phenomenon.

This is my favorite shot from the whole show. It is absolutely beautiful, & to me, gives a sense of scale to how…massive The Grid is. It feels like a force of nature but at the same time unequivocally mechanical. We’re used to stories in the Tron universe taking place in sectors & cities, but the environment is bursting with unique ideas of natural technology, perfectly encapsulating the metaphor of The Grid as a representation of the internet, or the inner workings of a computer, which can be seen as a web of sorts. A giant interlocking system just like our world.

The Automata are a step in the right direction I think. They are the same type of weirdness that I want to see from the nature of The Grid, alien & spontaneous as ISOs are supposed to be. I would love to see their habitats, & the different biomes present in The Grid.

[h0l1d4yh0rr0r]

You guys ever think about how all writers for any tron media wanna turn the franchise into a different direction

Tron 1982 was a movie made by people hopeful about the future in technology that explores religious parallels and is kind of corny with dorky characters (which isnt a bad thing... its cute)

Then Tron Legacy wants to be more cyberpunk-y and edgy and lean more into the We Gotta Defeat The Dictator elements from the first movie rather than the lingering Does God Even Know We're Real themes and it's just action and exposition with like three emotional moments

But then Evolution proposes does God CARE about us and CAN this Dictator even be overthrown and even Betrayal whips around and says guy maybe Digital Hitler was kinda right

And then comes beautiful Uprising where the Dictator isn't even a person or an idea to overthrow, but some entity that has grown beyond what we can fight against and has left us with only a small rebellion as to what we can do about our situation because God is Dead

And then Identity pulls the rug AGAIN and claims God ISNT dead he just Left Us To Rot or maybe There Is No God do you see what I mean when I talk about the clashing visions I understand some of these portray multiple perspectives but idk I'm kinda tired of not being able to like tron and having to like a certain version I've built for myself because the franchise can't keep consistent storytelling

Feel free to disagree though idk it's 11:30 pm

[traceytonight]

Tracey rambles about Tron Ares again

Tron Ares fills me with so much dread, each passing day is like a countdown to the death of a franchise I care so much about.

The producer, title & main character, is literally Joker Morbius alleged pedophile since the early 2000s himself Jared Leto. That alone ruins the movie for me, and yet every following bullet point makes everything about and around it so much worse.

-Premise is explicitly "What if the Grid came to the real world".

NO, the interesting part of the series is THE GRID, where all of the deeply meditative commentary about our world and visually interesting splendor is supposed to be! Yes we had the lingering plot thread of Quorra coming to our world, however;

-Nothing directly tied to Tron Legacy is specifically being followed up

So no seeing where Sam Flynn could have taken Encom, no Quorra adjusting to our world, No Edward Dillinger Jr scheming with the resurrected MCP; But most disrespectfully of all, they didn't even bother to get Bruce Boxleitnter back, THE GUY WHO PLAYS TRON (and Alan Bradly & Rinzler). The one guy who actively loved this series and campaigned for a Third Tron film for over a decade, and previously Tron Legacy for even longer. But you know who they are bringing back?

-Kevin Flynn is back

THE GUY WHO FUCKING DIED IN THE LAST MOVIE. Undermining the noble sacrifice that was integral to the core themes of the film.

And just today we got this:

This is so far from an advancement design wise of the Light Cycle from either film. None of the simple shape language of the original. None of the sleek visual melding of human & technology of Legacy. While the light cycle was always cool for being a futuristic video game-ass motorcycle, its was just one of the multitude of visual elements that served the thematic purposes of Tron flawlessly.

Meanwhile, this not only physically separates the driver from the cycle, they further emphasize it through all the little gaps where there were none on either prior design. They so easily could've had the red line on Ares connect into the obviously aligned part of the bike.

Even if this is meant to show the separation of the programs from the grid for some thematic element we're unaware of at the moment, we're already going to be getting a lot of that considering the movie takes place in an average ass city.

Also, to be truly nitpicky, it looks really uncomfortable to sit in & I don't like all the added greebles.

To circle back around, what I really hate about the cast, besides the obvious one, is that there are a lot of actors who I think will work extremely well in the world of Tron. Greta Lee, Gillian Anderson, Evan Peters? Inspired casting choices.

Meanwhile production wise we're literally taking David Fincher's collaborator trifecta. Jeff Cronenweth (Cinematographer), Tyler Nelson (Editor), and Trent Reznor (Composer, backed up by Nine Inch Nails) all worked on The Social Network, another one of my favorite films. Jeff is literally the son of Blade Runner's cinematographer, Nelson was co-editor on The Batman, a film with incredible pacing thanks to their hardwork, and while I'm not the most familiar with Reznor's full body of work, I've sincerely liked everything I've heard and think in conjunction with Jeff & Tyler he will make something fantastic and fitting for the tone of this film.

However, the screenplay is done by the writer of Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, and is being handled by the director of Pirates of the Caribbean 5. Choices that feel at odds with the prestige praise I was just handing out a paragraph ago.

Theres so many good elements that are eclipsed by its central glaring protagonist, seeming lack of the interesting setting/designs or integral thematic elements that I look for in Tron, and lack of expectation regarding the choice of director & writers.

Because my two greatest fears are not about if the movie is awful and destroys the franchise as I'm expecting it could, it's either:

What if the movie is genuinely good? Well acted and performed, somehow actually has the same level of philosophical inquiry that Legacy & Identity have? How am I gonna face that reality with the enormous horrific issue starring in it?

What if the movie is bad in everyway that I think it will be, but does financially and/or critically better than the first two? The franchise is not killed again, but revives and bases everything going forward around this awful outlier in the series?

Unless this movie fails so horrifically that Disney wants to scrub it from existence, as they tend to do, the future of any Tron media will undeniably be forced to cohere itself to the existence of Ares.

If you want something that actually expands on the musings and universe of Tron, play Tron Identity. A game so lovingly crafted for fans of those elements of Tron as a connected series. And I know this factually, as the writer of the game itself (who also created Thomas Was Alone) watched my twitch stream of it and confirmed my ramblings about the deep seeded lore and intent of design of the TREES that appear in the game. Only one example of the incredible attention to detail the game delivers on. Plus its also getting a sequel that unlike Ares, I'm awaiting with bated breath.

[twiinsunsart]

: not the games.

gouache painting (A4) of the recogniser before sam flynn enters the armoury and arena.

been a while since i’ve painted a legacy scene in gouache paint so here’s the newest edition!

sketch and reference below:

sketch:

reference:

[ldso-tron]

Just found out Cindy Morgan has passed away. What an awful way to start the new year, as a TRON fan.

Rest in peace Cindy, you will be greatly missed. 😥

Credit to TK421IsNotAtHisPost on Reddit for being first to share the news.

-TronFAQ

[coupleofdays]

Is it just me, or is the overall tone of each piece of Tron media more and more grim?

Tron: Hooray, we'll beat the bad guy and use technology to create a wonderful future!

Tron Legacy: Okay, we made some mistakes, some people died or got hurt, but in the end we'll be able to set things right and change the world.

Tron Uprising: Your battle is admirable, but it's doomed to failure. The bad guy will still be in power, and your friend will be turned into their underling. But at least someone else will eventually come along and fix things.

Tron Identity: God has abandoned us, the apocalypse is irrevocably coming, and all we can do is hold on to each other and hope for the best.

[mewtwowarrior]

I couldn't find the Tron: Identity main menu music uploaded anywhere, so I uploaded it!

The sound is pretty faint, so you might have to turn your sound up a bit!

[dumbtronaus]

au wHERE kEVIN fLYNN FORGOT THAT CAPS LOCK WAS ON WHEN PROGRAMMING tHE gRID SO ALL THE pROGRAMS TALK LIKE THIS

[corruptedcodelines]

-About Tyrace-

------------------------------------

ART REFERENCE

Gender: Male Run-type and Function: C̶̢͐h̶͈͆i̴̜̍m̴̼̀ẹ̴̎r̴͙̾à̸̮ ̵̬͑P̸̮̈́ṟ̵̾o̸̲̽ġ̸̫ŕ̵̭a̵̝͆m̸̬̃... Chimera Virus Circuit Color: Poisoned Green-Yellow Hair color: Dark Grey Motorfunction Preference: Right Handed Age Appearance: 24 Cycles (Unknown true age) Personality: Reserved, melancholic, sad, anxious, nervous, cautious, feral, worrying, loyal, lonely, attentive, distant. ---

Tyrace's Origin is as muddled as his corrupted memories of it all. He was created on an Independant system as a prototype Chimera Program (basically like a program that can learn and adapt to any job or function, similar to a rudimentary User-made ISO.) He was loaded into the Encom system to test his functionality in real time, and see if his Programming would work in a true scenario. Unfortunately, his coding was very unstable, resulting in a glitch... then a full compromization... morphing his adaptogenic code into that of a virus. He was ripped out of the Encom system both for safety of the System's other functions, and to protect whatever was left of the Beta Program, and stored on an empty drive... one that was stolen by Flynn to extend parts of the Grid onto. Finding himself conscious once again, missing memories, and corrupted... abandoned and cut off from his home and User... He escaped onto the Grid... living out his life in the Outlands... trying to find a cure for his... condition... while also protecting cities from his own kind.

----

If you want to RP with Tyrace, he will be available for all phases of Tron.

[encom-official]

So, some thoughts about Tron: Identity & program religion.

Prinz, the user fanatic you meet, has a collection of user artifacts in his office. This gives us some insight into possible program religion- though keep in mind this does not take place in the system we’re familiar with to the best of my knowledge. It seems like in this interpretation the religion surrounding Kevin Flynn largely resembles Christianity, with the talk of a literal second coming of the messiah. Personally I dislike this version of program spirituality, because it feels too similar to human religion, & also Christianity is always the default base for religious fiction, which often assumes Christian thought is the baseline. This is flawed for quite a few reasons.

In Legacy, we see Flynn’s acolytes dressed in robes, with shaved heads, & markings on their foreheads. They bow to Flynn when he walks by, resembling monks in a way. I prefer this interpretation, but at the same time Tron Legacy suffers a bit from a problem a lot of sci-fi has, which is orientalist uses of Asian aesthetics for a ‘futuristic’ & ‘exotic’ look. Granted, Legacy is far more excusable then say, Star Wars, because Flynn’s meditation & “zen thing” can easily be attributed to a sort of…specific middle aged dad aesthetic you would associate with a guy who was young in the 70s & 80s.

I would love to hear some thoughts about what you imagine program religion to be like- related to Flynn or not. Do you think it would be entirely alien to us? Or would they perhaps learn of human religion & attempt to imitate it?

[h0l1d4yh0rr0r]

Sam Flynn: Guess the real tron to this legacy was the friends we made along the way, huh, Quorra?

Quorra: Sam we saw God die

The Arq server burning in the arcade basement:

[craigpetersennz]

Always zine is available now!

I just want to say a massive thank you to @portalpanda, Sam and everyone behind-the-scenes who helped put together the Always zine in memory of Cindy Morgan! It must have been a colossal task and Panda managed it all with grace and patience. The zine looks amazing! I'm looking forward to spending some time going through all the art and stories of the creators involved. Well done, everyone! Remember, donations to the zine will go towards Girls Who Code, which is a very worthwhile cause, Programs! cindymorganzine.itch.io/always

[twiinsunsart]

the arcade 🕹️

digital art of flynn’s arcade from TRON (1982), with a little bit of legacy in the sign with the disk of course

sketch and reference below:

sketch

reference:

[the-system-monitor]

almost forgot the password to this account. thankfully remembered it somehow. excited for Tron Catalyst, the sequel to Tron Identity!

[coupleofdays]

Actual code comments in Tron, Part 2

[tjjonesartwork]

The Occupation from TRON Uprising drawn with TRON Legacy styled suits